I must say, I was shocked (in a pleasant way) when I got the latest issue of The Tolkien Society'sMallorn in the mail the other day. The tree drawn by Pauline Baynes that has graced the cover of Mallorn for ever has been replaced with a lovely Jef Murray illustration. Quite a striking change! Jef reports that the covers should feature other artists on future issues, so this isn't a change to a "new permanent" cover, but really a change of policy to (in my mind) liven up what has been a rather stodgy looking journal on the outside.
September
Board
I haven't had a chance to read this issue yet, so no comments on the contents, but I am sure they are not stodgy. It is always a pleasure to read a new issue of Mallorn (or an old one, it is a passion of mine to track down old Tolkien fanzines and journals if you haven't figured that out yet.)
It might be interesting to see illustrations of the mallorn on the cover by a variety of artists. I wonder if they will be able to pursuade any big names to contribute some artwork.
Inside the magazine is very minimal, too minimal I think. Personally I would like to see a return to the illustrated headings at the start of each article. I think Steve Lines did a lot of them.
The editorial by Tom Shippey is interesting, and they have an afterword by the author Celia Dart-Thornton. The articles are of mixed quality and generally less 'academic' I think. There is also a fairly large section of short fiction, which I haven't read - not my thing.
I hear that the editor hopes to publish various items by Tolkien, which will be interesting to see.
I think it unfortunate that they are moving away from the academic focus (especially the inclusion of fiction material.) There are so many channels for that type of material (Amon Hen to say the least) that I don't like the dilution of what has been a cornerstone of academic discourse.
.webp)
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